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men always have a square jaw?

so in my forensics class with are now on anthropology and how to tell skulls apart by race and gender. My teacher told us that men have a squared jaw and prominent eye brow ridges. she made it very clear that men have to have a square jaw and women have a narrow/pointed jaw with less brow ridge. i know men probably have more pronounced features but my teacher is a women with a very square jaw and prominent brow ridges which is the opposite of m. I'm a man and my jaw is not square at all. What do you guys think? is she just ignorant or is she right?

Jaw form and brow ridges are the most distinguishing features between men and women in the skull (there are other different bones, too) and the method is very reliable. Of course at the opposite extremes of both sexes the form and robustness of these bones overlap. Those bones are altered by serum testosterone levels and thus those features in males also correlate with perceived masculinity, aggressiveness and dominance.

Congrats you've lost your cherry! In being able to see through the authority into the essence of the average teacher. Its just that this type of literalness is usually to obscure to be recognized but it is usually there somewhere when dealing with inferiors like kids. She should be saying secondary traits of masculinity not 'a man'. Hardly anyone has ONLY masculine or feminine characteristics.

so in my forensics class with are now on anthropology and how to tell skulls apart by race and gender. My teacher told us that men have a squared jaw and prominent eye brow ridges. she made it very clear that men have to have a square jaw and women have a narrow/pointed jaw with less brow ridge. i know men probably have more pronounced features but my teacher is a women with a very square jaw and prominent brow ridges which is the opposite of m. I'm a man and my jaw is not square at all. What do you guys think? is she just ignorant or is she right?

Well if you look at a human mandible, they all have a angle between the ramus and the body of the mandible. I believe the reason why men have a more prominent jaw is that it broadens the face, and added with facial hair, makes them bigger and more intimidating, similar to how other mammals broaden their features against their opponents. Also, the prominent brow ridge is a hunter/gatherer adaptation where it can protect the eyes better when hunting in daylight.

Now some women may have a prominent jaw or angular "masculine" features...but it can just be attributed to human variation. Sometimes, facial features become more prominent with lesser body fat content, even though bone is the stable structure.

I think what she means is that males have that propensity, not that literally every male has the trait. The brow ridge one is also very noticeable if you pay attention to random people irl. Or if not the brow ridge, just that whole area above the eyes is a great feature for distinguishing sex. I'd never noticed it before, but the eye brow region is almost sure fire, I'd say.

Jaw form and brow ridges are the most distinguishing features between men and women in the skull (there are other different bones, too) and the method is very reliable. Of course at the opposite extremes of both sexes the form and robustness of these bones overlap. Those bones are altered by serum testosterone levels and thus those features in males also correlate with perceived masculinity, aggressiveness and dominance.

---------- Post added 2011-04-02 at 16:02 ----------

i do understand that there is a difference but aren't a square jaw and prominent brow ridges trait in a cro magnon person or alpinid?